The convergence of cellular and IP-based technologies serves as the catalyst for merging technologies into portable devices. For example, mobile clients such as cell phones can now access IP-based services on IP networks such as the Internet. Similarly, computing systems such as portable computers can include mobile client technology that facilitates making voice calls over the Internet to telephone destinations. This is due in large part to the network service providers including means to bridge the major networks so that users in both regimes can access each others services.
It is becoming commonplace that users will have multiple computing devices each having a different set of requirements for interacting with data and programs. In a corporate environment, maintaining the latest settings and information becomes important as employees are more mobile, thereby taking devices offline regularly during travel, for example. Consequently, when the employee needs to reconnect to the corporate environment, perhaps with a new device, it is desirable that the particular device characteristics such as operating system, communications capabilities, etc., are not limitations that prevent the needed access by the employee.
Corporations are further along in solving this problem with the many different computing systems in use today. Users can bring many different types of computers into the enterprise, and given the proper authorizations, can easily access the services provided by backend systems. However, support for mobile clients should also be available to provide transparent connectivity for daily operations. For example, device and user presence-enabled communications in smartphones can be useful to the enterprise to simplify workflow and improve productivity. However, there needs to be mechanisms in place that can readily identify such mobile client capabilities for the enterprise and transparently detect and maintain client information whether the client is online or offline.
Accordingly, businesses are migrating to the integration of systems to provide enterprise support in terms of an open-standards-based infrastructure for the many different types of devices. However, conventional solutions lack extensible, homogenous, and scalable architectures for supporting disparate mobile client technologies and the many different services that can be offered by enterprise backend systems.